An apparatus for personalizing identification cards is known. It is used for issuing printed identification cards with integrated circuits according to ISO 7816-2, i.e. so-called chip cards. With one printing unit the front of the card is printed, the card is reversed in the reversing unit, and then e.g. with a second printing unit, the back of the card is printed or in an embossing unit alphanumeric data are embossed into the card so as to be raised therefrom. The contacting device for loading the chip of the card follows the reversing unit.
According to EP 0153693 B1 the printing unit can have a thermal printhead consisting of a row of heating elements extending perpendicular to the card transport direction, the elements being singly drivable with an EDP machine and having a density of for example 100 heating elements per cm. The thermal printhead can write in two coordinates, one coordinate extending in the card transport direction and the other perpendicular thereto. The transport of the card is controlled and clocked with a stepping motor which moves the card past the row of heating elements in steps corresponding to the density of the heating elements. For printing plastic or plastic-coated identification cards, an ink transfer foil is provided which is moved through between card and thermal printhead and pressed by a counterpressure roll both against the heating elements and against the card. The ink transfer foil has an ink transfer layer with a thermoactive adhesive so that it sticks to the plastic card surface when heated by the heating elements. For this purpose the thermoactive adhesive must begin to melt the plastic surface of the card. Accordingly, the cards are preferably made of a plastic which softens on the surface at the temperature the ink transfer foil reaches when heated by the heating elements, in particular polyvinyl chloride, ABS or polypropylene.
While printing or embossing the card only takes a few seconds, the loading of the chips is more time-consuming and can be many times longer than printing or embossing if a relatively large amount of information is to be transferred. The time for loading the chips therefore has an essential influence on the speed of the known personalizing apparatus.
EP 0 597 135 A1 discloses an apparatus for reading and inscribing magnetic cards with a printing unit which can also read contact-bearing chip cards. The chip cards are supplied from a card shaft in a rotatable receiving drum to a chip reading unit in a channel in the housing of the apparatus. The receiving drum can also be used for reversing a chip card if the latter is not inserted with the side facing the chip contacts. However, the receiving drum otherwise serves as a kind of switch for putting the cards into the individual channels in the housing.
The problem of the invention is to substantially increase the speed of the known chip card personalizing apparatus in a simple way.